Cruelty is deliberate or habitual harm. It can come in the form of emotional abuse, manipulation, gaslighting, or neglect. Survivors often ask: “How can someone who claims to love me act this way?” The answer lies in understanding cruelty — not to excuse it, but to reclaim power. Cruel people often act out of: These behaviors… Read More Reclaiming Power from Cruelty: A Survivor’s Perspective

It’s hard to find words for how someone who claims to love you can act with such cruelty. Repeatedly, survivors are told: These are the hallmarks of gaslighting and psychological control. For years, survivors are taught to minimize, to hide, to silence themselves — often isolating them from family, friends, and any support that could validate… Read More From Gaslighting to Truth: Survivors Piece Their Story Together

There comes a moment in trauma recovery when the weight of what truly happened begins to surface.The memories, the letters, the photos, the cards — the things you tucked away, the things you didn’t want to remember — all start to speak. When survivors step back and look at the preserved evidence — journals, backups,… Read More Facing the Full Weight of Survival

Survivors don’t just endure.They strategize.They adapt.They survive in systems that try to erase them. When hidden journals, unsent letters, or old records finally come into the light — whether in therapy or through personal reflection — something extraordinary happens: Survival becomes sovereignty.Pain becomes power.Silence becomes voice. In trauma psychology, writing to someone who ignores you… Read More From Silence to Power: Survivors Reclaim Their Story

There comes a moment in trauma recovery when silence is no longer protection —it becomes a weight. Sometimes, that moment arrives through forgotten backups, old journals, letters never answered, or words written in desperation when being heard felt impossible. These records are not weakness.They are proof of survival. In trauma psychology, repeatedly writing to someone who… Read More When survivors finally bring the hidden evidence into the light

Strangulation is one of the most dangerous and psychologically devastating forms of assault.It directly impacts the brain’s fear system, memory processing, emotional regulation, and sense of safety. But survival rewires the brain for endurance.Healing rewires it for freedom. EMDR allows trauma to be reprocessed so it no longer controls the nervous system, emotions, identity, or self-worth. This… Read More Choosing EMDR after strangulation and psychological abuse is not recovery — it is reclamation.

Overt abuse is visible.Emotional neglect is invisible — and that is what makes it so damaging. When abuse happens, the nervous system knows something is wrong. Pain is acknowledged. Boundaries become necessary. Survival instincts activate. But emotional neglect is different. It teaches a person that their feelings do not matter, their needs are inconvenient, and their existence requires… Read More Why Emotional Neglect Is Often More Damaging Than Overt Abuse